


The Dead Will Wait

by chocoholicannanymous



Category: Shadowhunters (TV)
Genre: Friendship, Gen, episode revamp, maryse's a+ parenting
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-17
Updated: 2018-01-17
Packaged: 2019-03-06 04:00:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,353
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13403028
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/chocoholicannanymous/pseuds/chocoholicannanymous
Summary: Takes place after 2x04, Day of Wrath, and changes events of 2x05, Dust and Shadows.Clary is going to get her mother back, regardless of what it takes. She's done it before, so why not now? Only Maryse Lightwood gets in her way, and Clary has to decide what's most important - the living, or the dead.





	The Dead Will Wait

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: I own nothing except an overactive imagination and way too many plotbunnies.

 

Adding a stealth rune hurts. Then again, everything hurts now, and the rune is not anywhere near the worst. It's a good pain even, taking away from the agony inside, and it's for a reason. It's going to help her get her mom back.

Clary steels herself, focusing on that one thought. Getting her mom back.

That's worth more pain than this. It's worth everything.

The rune helps her find the information she needs undetected, and it's with a sense of relief she heads for the exit. She's going to make it. It's going to be fine. Everything is going to be fine.

Of course that's when her luck runs out. Well, kind of. She hears the voices just before she's about to turn the corner, and only just manages to stop.

It takes her a few seconds to recognize the voice, but when she does she sends up a silent prayer in thanks for stopping in time. It's Maryse, and she's clearly speaking to someone she considers beneath her (it took approximately half a day to learn the difference between Maryse talking to people who have power over her, and people she doesn't feel a need to bow down to).

“You were trained better than this. Clearly consorting with downworlders has made you weak.”

Alec or Izzy then. Clary's money is on Alec, and not just because Izzy should still be in the infirmary. Izzy never takes her mother's abuse silently. Alec...does. It makes Clary furious, hearing a parent talk to her kids that way, and it has nothing to do with liking both Lightwood siblings. She just hates bullies. She hates bad parents too. Combining the two... Yeah, no.

“...and what must Clary think, seeing you, and knowing you killed her mother?”

That does it. She steps around the corner and gives Maryse the best unimpressed stare she can muster.

“ **Clary** thinks you should shut up. Really.”

Maryse does this thing, where she sort of draws her body up as tall as she can, that's probably meant to make her look assertive. To Clary she just looks ridiculous – aiming for combative but looking like a fool.

“No, really. Shut up, **please**. Stop pretending like you care about me, or my mom, because you've made it glaringly obvious that you don't.

“You've protested me being here from the beginning, looking at me like I'm something the cat dragged in, and as for my mom...” Clary swallows back tears before continuing.

“It's not like you treated her any better when she came back. You didn't come for her funeral, and it takes **nothing** to travel from Idris to here. You didn't even take the time to send your condolences. But today you're here, only instead of coming to find me, you went after Alec. And you used the death of a woman far better than you as ammunition to abuse your son with.

“All that does is confirm that you don't really give a damn about me, and even less about my mom. All we are to you are new tools to hurt Alec. And frankly? I find that disgusting. I find **you** disgusting.”

The look on Maryse's face is like she's been slapped with a rotten fish, and yeah, Clary's not above enjoying that. The fact that she can see Alec standing behind his mother, looking stunned but relieved, helps.

(She can't help but wonder how often people have just walked by a scene just like this one and ignored Maryse's abuse. Then she tries really hard to forget that thought, because damn, the last thing she needs right now is a desire to beat up half the Institute.)

She's just so damned tired of it all.

“Why are you even here, Maryse? Seriously, why? You obviously don't care about Alec and Izzy – and have you even tried to see her yet, because I'm betting not – and it's doubtful you care about anyone else here either. So why make the effort to come? It can't be to help out, because from what I've learned you never do. In fact, I've never even heard anyone mention you ever being the least bit helpful.

“So why didn't you just stay in Idris, kissing ass and licking boots? It's what you excel at, after all.”

That finally gets Maryse going again, sputtering out words Clary could care less about. She allows them to flow over her for a minute, while rearranging her plans for the day. Priorities. Gotta have'm.

“Look, honestly? I'm sure you have all sorts of reasons and excuses lined up in your head that makes your behavior okay, but to me? All I see, all I hear, is a bully. An abusive parent. And I have no desire whatsoever to listen to what it is you think makes it acceptable. Because it's not. It never is.”

Clary remembers being a bit jealous at Alec and Izzy at first, for having both their parents. She also remembers meeting Maryse and realizing that while absent dad and kidnapped mom was far from ideal she was still the lucky one.

“Oh, and as for Magnus making Alec weak? Are you, I mean, I don't even know where to start with that. Caring for others doesn't make you weak, and I pity you for not being able to understand that.

“Also, you of all people don't get to call Alec weak. He's anything but. He is, on a bad day, ten times the Shadowhunter – the **human** – that you are.”

“I beg your pardon–!”

“You don't have it. You really don't. Not liking me is one thing. That's, that's your prerogative. Same with not liking my mom. Your damage, not mine. But when you try and use us, try and use **my mom's death** to hurt someone I care about? Then it becomes my business.”

Alec might not be her friend the way Izzy is, but that doesn't make her care less. He's on her side, even when she might not deserve it. He's on **Jace's** side. He's helped her, has saved her, and has provided so much strength. She's not going to stand to the side and let him be beaten down, not in a physical fight nor in this.

Judging from the way he stares at her she might be the only one outside of Izzy and Jace – possibly – who thinks so. And judging from the slightly glazed look in his eyes... _Time to get him out of here._ She's got one more point to make though.

“I want you to listen carefully, Maryse, because I don't want there to be any confusion about this.

“The demon who killed my mom had help getting in here – had been changed so it could avoid detection. Valentine did that. Do you understand?

“As far as I'm concerned Valentine – my so-called father – killed my mom.

“Keep that in mind as I tell you this one last thing: Valentine is a better parent than you. He killed my mom, he twisted and tortured Jace, and he's still a better parent than you.”

She looks Maryse straight in the eyes for a few seconds more, and then turns on her heel and holds her hand out towards Alec.

“Come on. It's time we left.”

Alec looks confused, and more than a little shaken, but he thankfully doesn't protest. Instead he allows her to take his hand and lead him away.

She'll take him to Butter & Scotch, she decides. They will eat something drenched in sugar and cream and butter, and probably alcohol, something utterly decadent, and have a drink or two as well. Afterwards she'll hand him over to Magnus, who'll be the best for taking care of Alec in this wounded-bird mode he's in, and then go hunt down Luke. Simon as well.

They miss her mom, just as she does, and they need her as she needs them.

The plan had been to meet with the warlock, and work on having her mom resurrected, but this, Alec and Luke and Simon, is more important.

The dead can, and will, wait. The living...shouldn't have to.

 

~The End ~

 


End file.
